We stopped watermarking a year ago and went for the full blown bold name right across the image as long as it doesn't go across the face area. The only complaints we've had are from other photographers who think it's tacky. Tough!
If customers use something of mine with the full name across it (some have copied it I'm sure, but not that I'm directly aware of) then I'll up it to be larger and into the face area.
Just my thought. Scr*w them.
DougA
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Will, is this a situation where some random individual is using a watermarked image of yours on a MySpace page because they think it's "a cool photo", or did this person have some actual connection to the event?
Have you considered offering a license option for a web image? (I'm not seeing any such option in your PhotoReflect.com galleries.)
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
IMO, if the photos are good enough to put on your page to get ego strokes, they're good enough to buy.
But you're ignoring (at least with this somewhat broad comment) the idea that a nice 11x14 glossy lab print has a different value than a watermarked thumbnail.
As Martin (and probably that friend of yours) suggested, why not offer a cheap, low-res thumbnail for MySpace and other web use?
Personally, I would never waste my time poking around MySpace or the like, looking for pirated thumbnail images. You could always send them an invoice and threaten legal action if they do not pay up, but you'll alienate a lot of customers in the process.
Interesting story I read yesterday:
There was a company who developed a piece of software to stitch together wide-angle images for virtual reality use. From what I read, they had a very agressive approach about protecting their intellectual property and squishing any competition that used similar methods. But this ticked off the VR community, and created much ill will towards the company. People resented the company's tactics, and the (bad) word spread. It wasn't long before that company went out of business. Now there are several companies which have sprung up to take its place.
The moral (as I see it) is that protecting a copyright (particularly when it comes to such a minor infraction as watermarked thumbnail theft) just cannot be worth jeopardizing your reputation or the future of your business.
The win/win situation would be to offer a very cheap ($3? $5?) small version for PC/web use. Make it affordable enough that people won't have to steal it, and you'll at least get a little scratch to ease that pain.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Just to clarify: We shoot a lot of horse events on spec. So, nearly 100% of the time, the stolen images are of the rider and their horse competing. Sometimes the images end up on their SpaceBook page, sometimes on a photosharing site so they can post a link to it with their brags on BB's.
I never go looking for this stuff. Usually, I either stumble across it, while doing a search for something else. Or I am sent an e-mail (in this case from another photographer) reporting the use.
I agree that a web pic does not have the same value as a nice print, and have thought of offering low cost web sized image for people to use in this way. Somehow it wound upon the back burner, and never got dealt with.
ETA: Just remembered, I went as far as setting up a page on my site as a trial balloon, but never launched it. RedlineEventPhoto.com
I was just wondering how others deal with this when is comes up.
__________________ You can only fish for so long before ya gotta throw a stick of dynamite in the water.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I agree that a web pic does not have the same value as a nice print, and have thought of offering low cost web sized image for people to use in this way. Somehow it wound upon the back burner, and never got dealt with.
I would argue that—for some—a web pic may actually have significantly more value than a print, specifically because of its immediacy and portability. There is an undeniable, growing demand for electronic imagery, and the MySpace situation you're reacting to is just one example of that. There may be a way to tap into it.
I'm just speculating, here, but has anybody in the Event field experimented (success or failure) with offering a web photo gallery product to clients? By which I mean that if you shoot an event, you've probably got an array of photos for each participant and you could actually establish a permanent (or semi-permanent) web gallery that the client would pay for and then have license to link to or even reuse images from.
Some interesting related thoughts in this recent essay by Bernard Languillier for Luminous Landscape.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
1) A woman took a few pictures from my Flickr account of scenes from Alberta. She then downgraded the images (I assume to reduce the file sizes) and rehosted (host located in the U.S.) them on her blog, which was used to promote her business. Her blog posts were filled with words that were designed to capture web traffic.
I asked her politely but forcefully to remove my pictures. She balked.
2) A scam site that hosted several Google advertisements had a blog post of mine reproduced word for word along with a photograph included in the blog post.
For situation ONE, I sent the blog host a DMCA notice. There were a couple polite and professional emails exchanged, and within 48 hours my pictures were removed.
For situation TWO, I sent Google (Blogger) a DMCA notice and within about 2-3 weeks, the entire blog was removed.
DMCA notices are easy to prepare. Here's the Google's format, which works well for all hosts.
Linear Mode
